“When we arrived there, a man was burning a sack full of rubbish IN the burial chamber. Smoke was bellowing out from under the cap-stone and the smell of plastic was heavy in the air.”
From a letter to the Glamorgan GEM
Follow up:
Tinkinswood fire reported to police
The mind truly boggles at the levels of idiocy of some people.
Mind you there seems to me to be a particular problem in south Wales with people dumping rubbish and fly-tipping at ancient sites. On every occasion I've visited places around there there's been some or other form of litter around, such a shame that most of the local inhabitants fail to appreciate the beautiful landscapes and history of the place they live.
Back in October 2010 I was clambering up past Giant's Graves on Arran heading to Torr an Loisgte and found that some people had
"lit a fire close in by the North cairn and piled up felled tree trunks over the chamber like some kinda log roof. I couldn't leave it like that and kicked the hearth and ashes into the felled forestry then I tossed the trunks off the edge of the terrace like a salvo of cabers. Job done, I pressed upwards and onwards."
There really is no accounting for some people's stupidity. It is boundless.
Tink does seem to be a magnet unfortunately, just re-read the notes from my first visit about finding a section of charred fence post inside. Still not as bad as the horror of the cairn up above Senghenydd filled with empty cans and discarded hypos.
This is sheer craziness. What would possess you to do such a thing, could they really be that stupid? I mean they deliberately came to Tinkinswood from their flat so they must "know it" and value it as something... I can't imagine what though. If they had some weird 'pagan ritual' thing going on, there's absolutely no excuse of ignorance. Besides, ignorance is impossible with the signage of the site, it's evidently Something, isn't it.
Well it's a scheduled monument and they have damaged it through recklessness. So they ought to get a fine. Enough people saw them doing it and saw their faces.
Luckily for them, this government has drained the police service of money and they probably perceive more urgent things to do.
Utter wankers.
Completely agree with you Paul. Although I can attest such moronic behaviour can be found throughout the UK - the appalling tendency for locals at Skelpick, way up on the north Scottish coast, to use their local chambered cairns as rubbish tips being a case in point - I would suggest nowhere is it more prevalent than South Wales. Endemic, even. An outside observer might be tempted to say it represents a general 'don't give a damn' attitude to heritage, other people... anything except rugby and beer .... something arguably mirrored - certainly in my experience - by the attitude of the heddlu. Reporting issues to local councillors apparently does little good. But then what would you expect? Hence those locals who do give a damn, who do stand up and be counted, should be treasured for the jewels they are - salmon swimming against the current.
South Wales is a nightmare for people fly-tipping. I have travelled quite widely all over the UK and nowhere is as bad :(